Description

RotorCard SDX for Computer RS-232/USB Control of Yaesu SDX Rotor Controllers by Ham Supply / Idiom Press – Invented, Patented and Manufactured in the USA YouTube Video of RotorCard In Action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXgZ_JzeS_s RS232 Computer Control for Yaesu SDX Series Rotors (G-800SDX, G-1000SDX, G-2800SDX). RotorCard mounts inside your SDX box, no bulky or unsightly external boxes! Do you own one of these superb Yaesu SDX rotors? Do you use logging or contesting programs that offer rotor control? And you would like to add RS232 control but you say you have been put off by the extremely high price of a factory interface card? You say you looked at the competition, but did not want to surrender a slot in your computer, and besides you wanted full support for both the Yaesu overlap function and for the slowdown feature, instead of a pricey “universal” solution? Relief is at hand! Ham Supply/Idiom Press is now offering our RotorCard SDX offering full RS232 control for Yaesu SDX series rotors. RotorCard fully supports the Yaesu overlap function, as well as Yaesu’s slowdown feature. Further, RotorCard SDX is the only product available that fully supports both north centered rotors and south centered rotors. You need only add a jumper to the board to default to south centered control. RotorCard Installation RotorCard SDX is supplied fully wired, and installs in minutes in your Yaesu SDX control box. Simply remove the top, plug RotorCard in, screw down two screws, bring the cable out through the back, and it is installed. Hook the RS232 cable to your computer, run a calibration routine using any dumb terminal program such as Hyper-Terminal in Windows, replace the top and you are done! No soldering needed! RotorCard SDX is fully compatible with any program that supports rotor control of either the HyGain DCU-1 rotor or Idiom Press’s Rotor-EZ, as it shares the same command set. No DB9 RS-232 port on your computer? Did you know all you need to run the RotorCard SDX from a USB port on your Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10 or Apple/Mac computer is a USB to RS-232 converter cable? As to why we’ve made the decision to stick with tried and true RS-232 on our controllers (and not go the path of direc t USB to USB connectivity), here’s just a few reasons: RS-232 dependability, stability RS-232 compatibility with older computers RS-232 ease of use – lack of intensive USB software stack RS-232 – no communications signal line power required Hard limitations on cable length for USB (1.5-2 Meters) versus up to 15 Meters (maximum baud rate) and 100 Meters (low baud rate) for RS-232 RS-232 – dedicated communications (com) port – unlike USB “hubs” with complex stacks to identify and separate ever changing ports “ It is worth pointing out that RS232 is far superior to USB when jitter and latency matter. You cannot reliably feed a Pulse Per Second signal to a computer over USB. You can do so with RS232 ” – dfc (Electrical Engineering at StackExchange.com) And the list goes on and on. USB may be great for your computer peripherals like a camera or a high speed printer, but for low baud, rock solid communications – RS-232 is still the king . We recently spoke to an employee/engineer of a well known Ham Radio antenna company that is presently looking into re-implementing RS-232 for their products because they’ve had so many issues with direct USB to USB connectivity. The bottom line is, “the newest thing is not always the best thing”. We concur. Note: This product is for Yaesu SDX series rotator controllers only (For Yaesu DXA Controllers view our eBay Store). Sorry, no serial interface board for Yaesu G-400, G-400RC, G-450A, G-450RC, G-550, G-650A, G-650C, G-800SA, G-1000A, G-1000SA, or G-5500 rotor controllers (yet). Our Ham Supply RS-232 DB9 to USB converter cable. Used with our Ham Supply / Idiom Press Rotor-EZ With RS-232 and also our Yaesu DXA and SDX RotorCards when only a computer USB port is available. 3' cable with hex nuts. Available in our eBay Store. Yaesu SDX and Yaesu DXA are registered trademarks of Yaesu.